123) Tragedy Looper

This is a unique puzzle solving game where one player takes on the roll of running the game while the remaining players try and solve the puzzle. In the game we played we were trying to figure out who the key person was and then prevent them from dying. The player running the game is trying to kill the key person. Each turn players play cards that allow characters to move or gain experience or fatigue. After cards have been resolved characters perform special actions, which may include different characters getting killed off. When the objective fails the game is reset and the players have another chance to try and figure out how to win.

Anime Theme

Set up and ready to start 

There's been a murder

This game is different from other games I've played. It was a bit of work to figure out what was going on, but once we got into it it was a fun puzzle to solve. A huge bonus is that we played one of many different scenarios, meaning there are tons of new game versions all within this one game. I'm looking forward to trying this again.

110) Romans Go Home

In this game you're trying to win different towers for victory points. Each round 6 towers are available to be conquered. Each player draws six cards and lays them upside down in columns corresponding to the towers. Then each player flips up the first column of cards, checks card abilities and assigns the tower to the player with the highest valued card. The winner of the tower removes all their face up cards then the next column of cards is flipped.

Team McRed ready for action

Waiting for a few more cards to be played

Example cards

Not enough points to win

I enjoy the challenge of trying to plan ahead when initially laying your six cards out. You have to consider what other players will do and attempt to find synergy between your cards allowing you to collect the more valuable towers. I expect after 5-10 plays the strategy starts to get a bit repetitive, but I really enjoyed playing this and would recommend it.

107) Two Rooms and a Boom

This is a 6 minute real time game that is easy to learn and creates fun and interesting social interactions. As seen below there are two color cards. On the red team will be one person with a bomb and the blue team will have one person who is the president. All the cards are shuffled and dealt randomly - one for each player. You then split into two groups (in two different rooms) and you have three minutes to interact with and try and figure out who different people are. Additionally each table elects a leader. At the end of three minutes the leader at each table picks one person who has to join the other group. You then repeat the process for two minutes, then finally for one minute. The game ends and if the president and bomb are in the same room the red team wins whereas if the president isn't in the room with the bomb the blue team wins.

This is all there is to it

I was on team red

This game is interesting to say the least. With so little instruction it can be a bit difficult to figure out what to do. We had a bit of a slow start, by the end had a good idea of what was going on. I'm not sure how much strategy is involved, but its quick enough where that doesn't matter as much. Also, it would be really easy to print up your own version of this game to play.

99) Saboteur

In this game each player is a dwarf working in the mines. Some players are trying to build tunnels to the gold whereas other players are saboteurs trying to thwart their plays. Of course everyone's identity is secret so you may figure out the hard way who each player is.

My hand

Slowly digging some tunnels

This is a good game for larger groups. It plays really quickly and is easy to teach. There is a bit of strategy although its a fairly linear game. A lot of the fun of the game is trying to figure out whether or not players are saboteurs. We ended up playing three times in a row as I've found this game tends to suck you into multiple plays.

98) Cockroach Poker

Another light, quick, fun game. In this game you pass a card face down to another player and claim its a certain insect. The player has two choices, they can call you on it saying either it is or is not what you claim it to be OR they can look at the card and then pass it to another player and claim its an insect of their choice. I had fun passing my cards and claiming every time that it was a stink bug, it really makes people start to wonder what's going on. Additionally when the odds were in my favor it was fun to have a player pick a card randomly out of my hand and make them question whether or not I actually was able to say what it was without looking.

Cute Art

6-player game

Oops, the goal is to not get these

This is a fun game to play although in the end its mostly a game of chance. I don't like that based on the odds you should (almost) always look at the card and pass it on as you have a 66% chance of not losing if you look vs. 50% chance if you challenge. I also don't like that each round has a loser who supposedly doesn't play again until only one player is left. We just played a few rounds without any consequences for losing, but I generally don't enjoy the player elimination mechanic.

97) Mascarade

This game is very similar to coup in that you have secret identities with different potential actions. On your turn you claim to have a certain character and thus do the corresponding action. Other players have a chance to challenge. Players aren't eliminated as in coup, but rather, the goal is to accumulate a certain amount of money to win.

Getting ready to start 

6-player game

We all enjoyed the game enough to play a second time. It plays rather quickly and is a good filler game. Not too much strategy, but trading (or not trading) character cards with other players adds a fun element to the game. If you like coup you'll enjoy this.

90) Cash'n Guns (2nd edition)

This game comes with a bunch of fake guns that you get to pretend to shoot people with. Of course they don't know whether you've put a bullet in the gun this round. If someone expects a loaded gun (or guns) is pointed at them they can run away. Those who haven't run away reveal if they've actually shot someone (or more often the case loaded a blank). Anyone left standing gets a piece of the loot.

Just about sums up the game 

Ready to do some shootin

First loot offering

Final score

We ended up playing this twice in a row because we enjoyed it so much. That said, I don't think there is enough strategy to keep me wanting to come back over and over. For me, this game is best suited as a starter game that allows everyone to play something together before jumping into something with a bit more meat. It's a quick, light game with a great theme. It has a fun element of risk taking that can pay off quite nicely if done correctly. And of course those toy guns are a hoot.

89) The Castle of the Devil

This is a fun hidden identity game where you're trying to figure out who is on your team while also collecting goblets or keys for end game victory. Throughout the game you'll be trading items and battling other players. Through these actions you'll start to figure out who is on your team and make a better strategy for victory.

Who wouldn't buy this box 

Four of our six players

If you're always red sometimes you're a girl...

We found the goblets

I think our initial play is very different then future plays. We were all learning the game and thus a bit new to the strategy. Consequently we may have made decisions that were nicer then future plays could be. In this game its all about what information people have and I think players will fight to keep that information now that they understand the game better. All that to say everyone enjoyed this game and I would enjoy playing it again to see how it evolves with subsequent plays.

81) Shadow Hunters

In this game each player has a secret identity. The goal is to eliminate players that are not on your team or complete the mission on your card. Throughout the game you'll be collecting equipment, attacking other players, and gaining information on other players.

Ready to start

Blindly killing each other

I'm dead

I had a lot of fun playing this game despite a number of parts of the game that I didn't enjoy. I'm not a fan of dice and in this game you roll to determine which action you can do. This often removes a lot of strategy from the game. Also, I found that with so many players you tend to get bored waiting for your next turn. The last thing I didn't enjoy was that players can be eliminated from the game and then must wait for everyone else to finish playing. Despite that it does accommodate a large group and everyone had fun. I do enjoy the challenge of trying to figure out who is on what team. I think for me this was fun to play a few times, but I can see myself getting tired of this more quickly then other games.

60) Clans

Another quick and easy filler game. Each person is secretly assigned a color and the goal is to have your color score the most points throughout the game. On your turn you move all the huts from one location to an adjacent location. When this results in the huts having no adjacent huts that group is scored.

Just getting started

The board in all its glory

Very mobile huts

End game

This game is great as a quick filler that doesn't require a lot of thought. Initially it can suffer from some AP as there are so many moves and no clear signal that one move is better then another. As people start to realize this the game speeds up and subsequent plays would be quick. Overall its quick to learn and its fun having the mystery of not knowing what colors each other player is.

58) Uptown

This is a quick game thats easy to pick up. On your turn you place a tile on the corresponding row, column, or 3x3 grid that corresponds to the tile and then draw a new tile. The goal is to have the least number of unconnected groups of tiles.

Orange's secret tiles

Just getting started

Captured a few

Final board

I enjoy this game for a quick (less then half hour) game that isn't to taxing on the brain. The game above was a two player game, which is fun and gives you quite a bit more control over what you're doing. I do think it plays better with 4 though. This game also does a good job of introducing the idea of area control in games.

52) Keyflower

This game started off a bit slow (partly because we were still learning how to play). But towards the middle and end the tension and strategy picked up a bit. After the first play I imagine the same tension will be present throughout the game as we weren't sure how to value different tiles at the beginning. I'm really excited to try this again and hopefully clean up a lot of the mistakes I made in this inaugural game.

The game in all its glory

Bidding

Workers and tools on boats

End game board

Awesome game. I expect multiple plays to bring out more of the strategy and depth in the game. At the same time its fairly straight forward in the actual game play. So, its quick to pick up, fun to play, and lots of strategy. Win, win, win.

38) Concept

This game is awesome. Whomevers turn it is draws a card and choose a word/phrase that everyone else is going to try and guess. You then place markers on the board as clues to lead the other people to guess the secret word or phrase. Easy enough to understand the rules, but it can be a huge challenge to get people to connect the dots of your clues. I love that it forces you to think outside the box and problem solve different ways to explain what you're thinking.

Beautiful board 

A book thats a movie, young adult, superheros, death, ummm...

Very fun. I would most liken this to Dixit, which fills the roll of "I don't like party games...but I love THIS game".

36) Tigris and Euphrates

Every time I play this game I'm reminded of how amazing it is. Generally its an area control and battling game driven by laying tiles. One aspect of this game that I really love is that when resolving battles tiles come off the board, which drastically changes the power of the board. People's board strength is constantly changing and to be able to see these changes coming and take advantage of them is key to being successful.

Part way through the game

My secret stash

Leaders taking a breather - never a good sign

Final score

I love the strategy of this game and how you're constantly trying to adapt your plans to an ever changing board. I highly recommend this one.

34) Glass Road

I came into this game with little knowledge about what it was and was blown away at how fun and challenging it is. There's the resource management aspect to the game which then allows you to build up your board with various building and landscape tiles. All of this is driven by a fun card playing mechanic where you're trying to figure out what other people will play in-order to maximize the benefit of the cards you play. The buildings require you to balance immediate bonuses, resource conversion, and long term scoring combinations and that resource wheel was so simple, yet at times it was a pain controlling which resources you had. There's so much packed into this game and yet its so elegant and simple to play.

Player board ready to go

Ingenious resource wheel

Four player game just getting started

My end game board

This game unexpectedly jumped to one of my new favorites, needless to say I highly recommend it.

32) Cosmic Encounter

In this game you're attempting to colonize other players planets. To do this you must negotiate with the other players and try and convince them to help either the attacking or defending player. This game has the potential to make people unhappy with each other as a main component can be (although it wasn't as much in our game) to convince people of one thing and then stab them in the back.

Two of the five players planets

My planets

End of a five player game

Purple got hammered

This game was quite fun and played quicker then I had expected. The re-playability of this game probably its strongest quality. Each game players choose a different character that give you special abilities and often changes the rules of the game. These abilities greatly influence peoples path to victory and will make for a different game experience every time. All that leads to fun fun fun.